Sutures typically consist of a filamentous suture thread attached to a needle with a sharp point. Sutures may be conventional or self-retaining. Self-retaining sutures (often referred to as “barbed sutures”) differ from conventional sutures in that they possess numerous tiny retainers (often barbs) which anchor into the surrounding tissue following deployment, thereby eliminating the need to tie knots to affix adjacent tissues together. A self-retaining suture may be unidirectional, having one or more retainers oriented in one direction along the length of the suture thread; or bidirectional, typically having one or more retainers oriented in one direction along a portion of the thread, followed by one or more retainers oriented in another (often opposite) direction over the remainder of the thread. Although any number of sequential or intermittent configurations of self-retaining sutures are possible, the most common form involves a needle at one end, followed by barbs projecting from the suture thread and “away” from the needle until the transition point (often the midpoint) of the suture is reached; at the transition point the configuration of barbs reverses itself 180° (i.e., the barbs are now facing in the opposite direction) along the remaining length of the suture thread before the suture thread is attached to a second needle at the opposite end.
Various types of packaging for sutures have been used and currently exist in commercial form today. Most suture package designs feature a housing wherein the suture material is bunched together, coiled together, or wound into an oval or “figure 8” configuration. These suture package designs typically allow the suture material to contact itself and/or the suture packaging in multiple areas. Such designs are suboptimal for several reasons. Suture material tends to have a “memory” whereby the suture material retains the shape it had while it was stored, even after deployment. Accordingly, suture material that is bunched, coiled together or wound into a oval or “figure 8” configuration during storage may revert back to its storage configuration and thus may have a tendency to grab or become entangled with itself when used in the operating field. Coiling or winding of barbed sutures within the packaging can be an issue with barbed sutures, because the barbs may flatten during storage and retain that flattened shape when deployed, thereby decreasing the effectiveness of the barbs in the operating field. Most suture packages are also designed to have only a single configuration (i.e., they are unalterable). Consequently, these suture packages often lack the flexibility to effectively store different types of sutures in different configurations based on the specific properties of the suture being stored therein. To overcome various issues in this art, such as those mentioned above, as well as other issues in the art, it would be desirable to provide an improved suture package which can be altered based on the properties of the suture being stored, configured to minimize issues associated with suture memory, and configured to minimize points at which the packaged suture intersects with itself and the suture package during storage.